Indonesia: Twin Natural Disasters: Tsunami and Volcano strike the Indonesian archipelago

Updated (Oct27,2k10):

In ticker feed reports, Associated Press via Yahoo! News carry the bad news of two natural disasters hitting the country within hours of each other.  Slamet Riyadi sends his dispatch from Mount Merapi, Java, the largest of the country's 17,500 islands.  These territories include more than 129 active volcanoes which the gov tries to watch to give advance warnings of an over-the-top eruption.  About 20 people were badly burned by hot ash from the live volcano.  But the count may be incomplete; fatalities, so far, have not been mentioned.

In the same breath, as it were, the same source carries another report from yesterday (Oct25,2k10) by Niniek Karmini, from Jakarta,  about a powerful earthquake that has "triggered a 10-foot (three-meter) tsunami that pounded remote island villages in western Indonesia, killing at least 113 people and leaving scores more missing...."  The cluster of Mentawi islands, a 12-hr boat ride from Sumatra, were the worst hit in this round.

Earthquake, fire and flood.

Updated (Oct27,2k10)

by Sara Schonhardt,  Correspondent / October 27, 2010 Jakarta, Indonesia

Christian Science Monitor

Days after a tsunami hit the Mentawai Islands in western Indonesia, the government has put a relief plan into action that includes emergency air drops and tons of aid supplies. But the fact that the string of islands off the coast of Sumatra is so remote, is posing challenges for large-scale relief efforts.  ...

Large cargo ships, which can handle rougher weather, can take up to 48 hours to make the more than 150-mile journey from Sumatra. ...

The latest figures count 272 people dead and more than 400 missing. The Ministry of Health will deploy a medical team of 15 doctors by helicopter tomorrow, but for now Soetrisno said the number of severely injured victims remains low [compared to the 2k04 tsunami of Northern Sumatra which killed 160,000].

Still, on Wednesday evening President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced that the national and local governments were capable of responding to the disaster.

-- Owlb